Raymond E. Beaven, Jr., died attempting to save Harold F. Snider from suffocation, Birmingham, Ohio, October 28, 1960. At a fruit products plant, Snider, 46, cider mill pressman, entered a storage tank 16 feet in diameter and nine feet high in which cider had been stored and which still contained a high concentration of carbon dioxide gas. After descending a ladder from an opening in the top of the tank, Snider was overcome and, calling for help, fell face upward on the bottom in cider residue four inches deep. His cries attracted Beaven, 32, cider mill foreman, and others, who climbed onto the tank, peered into the opening, and saw Snider. Beaven descended the ladder into the tank. He lifted Snider, carried him half way up the ladder, and then suddenly toppled backward. Both men fell to the bottom of the tank and lay face down in the cider residue. Workmen opened a valve, which supplied air to the tank and then made several unsuccessful attempts to remove Beaven and Snider before firemen arrived. Wearing a mask, a fireman entered the tank carrying one end of a rope and with another tied around his waist, both ropes being held by men outside. Beaven and then Snider were removed by means of ropes. Neither could be revived.
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